Review of Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder

Yelena,
convicted of murdering the son of a powerful general, awaits execution.
But with only a few hours left, she is offered an incredible reprieve
-- and agrees to become the new food taster for Commander Ambrose, the
military leader of Ixia. Living in a palace and eating only the best
meals is a dramatic change for Yelena, who spent the last year locked up
in a rat-infested dungeon, eating gruel. But she soon realizes that she
has more to worry about than ingesting potentially lethal poisons in
the commander's meals. The general whose son she murdered has vowed
bloody vengeance, and everyone in the commander's retinue look at Yelena
as an untrustworthy criminal. The longer she stays alive, however, the
more she begins to understand her own perplexing abilities -- all of
which will be put to the test when cunning rebels plot to take control
of Ixia.

You
know those books that you see for ages and ages and ages and then one
day you just go, 'I'm sick of seeing you! I'm going to buy you!' Well
this was one of those books for me. I bought it quite cheap and wasn't
expecting much from it but I was pleasantly surprised - I loved it!

Yelena
is a character that is impossible not to love. She gets herself in some
pretty awful situations yet never asks for help, just gets on with it
and fights or gets the hell out of there. She can look after herself,
basically. Valek is one of those characters that is easy to fall in love
with, yet you don't really expect him and Yelena to end up together at
first. When they did I felt like cheering, it was perfectly written. All
of this story is beautifully written though.The
story completely sucked me in and I didn't want to stop reading it.
When I did I immediately downloaded the sequel as a Kindle version just
so I could read it quicker! I wouldn't recommend this to the younger end of YA readers, probably 16+ as there are scenes on this which are quite adult.